Administrative/Biographical history: For more than a century, Cambridge graduates have gone to India, in particular to Delhi as missionaries, teachers and doctors. The Delhi Mission was begun by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1852 but the link was formalised by Thomas Valpy and Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott (Bishop of Durham (1890-1901) and Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge (1870-1890)), by the creation of a committee in Cambridge in 1876. The first six men sent under the auspices of the committee arrived in Delhi between 1877 and 1879. They lived together in the Delhi Brotherhood, a monastic community of unmarried men. The Brotherhood is now an actived member of the Church of North India. Their work in evangelism was supplemented by their work in education, centred on St. Stephen's College, founded in 1881 and now the site of Delhi Polytechnic. Most years a chaplain from one of the Cambridge colleges was sent out to the college, usually at Christmas to maintain personal links. The mission also became involved in local social development projects and St. Stephen's Hospital. A women's religious order known as St. Stephen's Community was founded later. The official title of the committee became the Cambridge Mission to Delhi (CMD) in 1884. In 1967 the CMD was amalgamated into the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel but at the same time, the Cambridge Committee for Christian Work in Delhi (CCCWD) was created to take over the running of the Delhi link. This committee also manages the Teape Fund, created with money left in the will of William Teape in 1942. This was to be used to fund a lectureship in memory of his teacher, Bishop Westcott. The subject of the lectures was to be the relationship between Hindu Scripture and the Christian Gospel and were to be delivered alternately at St. Stephen's College and at Cambridge. The lectures began in 1955 and have continued since. A more recent, bequest, that of Christopher Robinson, to foster links with India, is also administered by CCCWD. The latter also has a close relationship with the committee of the Friends of Delhi Diocese by bringing together past workers, friends and supporters in England.

Custodial history: The minutes and associated papers of the CCCWD have been stored for a number of years in the Henry Martyn Centre as the Centre director is, by tradition, a member of the committee.

Immediate source of acquisition:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

Scope and content/abstract: Minute books, accounts, correspondence and associated papers of the committee from 1944 to the present as well as of the Teape Sub-Committee, the Delhi Brotherhood, St Stephen's College, St. Stephen's Hospital and the newsletters and other papers of the Freinds of Delhi and Rajastan Dioceses.